


Something hidden in his eyes

by Allen_Freckles



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Beauty and the Beast Elements, Fusion of the novel and the movie, La Belle et la Bête AU, M/M, Or at least a try of it, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, and the disney canon too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-05 11:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16809445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allen_Freckles/pseuds/Allen_Freckles
Summary: «Once upon a time in a distant land.A young prince who lived in a beautiful castle... »A tale as old as time.From an unexpected encounter, from an incorrect romance.Of a world in which they can be, although they should not be.From a lonely one looking for an ending like in his books and a one who longs for more than a provincial life.Life is not that easy.





	1. A curse.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a long time without writing a fanfic and well, I saw this idea a couple of days ago on twitter and I thought it would be nice try to adapt it.
> 
> English is not my mother lenguage so if any of you find any errors please let me know about it!
> 
> Without anything else, I hope you like this prologue before the story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my mother lenguage so if any of you find any errors please let me know about it!  
> Please enjoy!

It was at dawn of the twelve of August.

When the light of the sun began to sneak through the window, when the morning heat gave color to the gardens and shortly after the birds began their song. It was between these moments and in a middle of a couple of white blankets, the queen gave birth to her little one.

A healthy child, with delicate looking, clear skin and golden hair, restless hands and feet that kicked everyone who held him in arms.

Aslan Jade Callenreese was how they decided to call him, the second son of the royal family.

He was pampered with the best possible care, getting the best education that could be offered, he was filled to the brim with the most beautiful views that the castle could capture, he grew up running among fields of flowers with sweet aromas and bright colors, his childhood being cared for by people with the most beautiful faces in the whole kingdom. Only pleasant things could be presented at the young prince's sweet eyes, no matter what the ridiculous limits this could reach, it had become a real mandate, a way in which the king sought to apologize for something never said.

With that established, the little one, although not intentionally, grew up thinking that those things that were beautiful to look at were the only ones that could deserve some kind of respect from his part. Blossoming in him also a lovely beauty, it was easy to come to the wrong conclusion that there was nothing more important than the outside in people.

It was a cold winter night when it was decided that his vision should change.

There was little movement inside the palace, most of the servants were preparing to retire to rest while the others finished their day's work.

The young prince had decided to sit down that night in front of the fireplace, with one of the last books that his mentor had asked him to read. He passed page after page slowly, his eyes danced between the paragraphs without really paying attention to what he read. It could be said that he was even more aware of how his glasses slid down to the bridge of his nose than of the book itself.

When his gold-rimmed glasses brushed the tip of his nose, someone knocked on the door.

A couple of knocks, loud, resounded to his ears.

He looked up, but didn't get up. He expected some servant to see who it was, but no matter how much he waited, he doesn't hear anyone open the door. Instead, he hear more noise from it.

No servant seemed to notice that sound, he was sure there were one or two still circling through the main entrance. But he didn't understand why none of them did anything.

If the blows hadn't were becoming more and more insistent, he would have thought that it was an hallucination, one product of his tired head. He couldn't ignore it even if he wanted to.

Slowly he approached the door, mentally preparing himself to receive whoever was the madman who continues knocking on at that time.

He couldn't disguise the disgust on his face when he finds a ragged old man at opening the door.

"Goodnight." He started with courtesy. "Forgive me for breaking into your abode at these inhuman hours, but I see myself in the imperious need to ask for your compassion."

The young man, without believing what he was listening to, allowed himself to smile mockingly, without interrupting the old man at any time.

"Please, let me stay here for the night, I have no shelter and I will not be able to withstand the cold this season." He asked kindly, moving a little, as if looking for something inside the large black cloak that covered him.

"You have a lot of courage to ask me something like that." He answered almost immediately, without turning the smile away from his face. "But if I accepted, what would I get in return?"

"All I have is this rose," he replied slowly, opening the folds of his robe to show a beautiful dark red rose, with its petals open and the thorns uncut. The old man smiled, maybe looking in some way to pity the young man's heart in front of him. "A rose as beautiful as you, don't you think?"

"Beautiful." He replied, smiling even more, he did not take it seriously. "Beautiful as the hundreds of roses that bloom in my garden." He couldn't take it seriously. "I'm afraid, apologize me, but I can't accept it. I have nothing left but the painful need to ask you to leave, I'm sure you'll find somewhere to spend the night."

He was unable. He couldn't extend his kindness to someone who looked like this, he couldn't risk to getting him in and expect that the man doesn't steal anything from his palace. He couldn't let that decrepit old man go where he didn't belong.

He don't wait to receive any appeal from the man before closing the doors again to return to his boring reading.

Being alone, the old man dropped the rose to the ground without much consideration.

He sighed softly, he didn't want to get to that extreme, but it was painfully obvious. The young man was completely blinded, his vision of the world was crooked. He couldn't let that someone like take the course of the kingdom. He couldn't let him continue living with such an empty heart.

He approached the door again, playing again with force. He took one last look at the palace before his disguise disappeared completely.

The young man opened the door again at the third knock, with a clear expression of anger that faded a little when he saw that the old man was now an elegant man in a white suit.

"Not everything that shines is gold, my sweet prince" began with tired eyes the man in the suit, didn't let the prince say a word this time. "I wouldn't like to have to do this, but you are unable to understand it; if you continue to be guided only by what your eyes can see, you will end up submerging yourself and your kingdom in absolute misery."

The man in white spoke firmly, looking sadly as the young man's expressions became problematic.

"I hope you can forgive me one day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for read!


	2. More than a provincial life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if continue with this is a good idea ksjdks  
> But anyway, is funny come back to write for me so, I hope don't get tired of this.
> 
> Enjoy de chapter!

Probably, the things were obvious at the beginning.

It wasn’t more than seven years since the village settled at the outsides of the thick forest. The houses were small and the shops, being very recent, they were lack of products, at best, they had some recognition for being the point where the sunsets were best appreciated and for having the most fertile lands for cultivation.

Maybe, that's what prompted him to take that course.

Shunichi Ibe, at the expense of any offensive comments he might receive, was an inveterate inventor who had recently begun to struggle to maintain himself financially. Well, more than usual. It was not that he was bad at what he did, but there were very few occasions in when his inventions caught the attention of the public and even fewer times that someone dared to invest in them, and even with those barely situations, he always gave more priority to his creations than to the small jobs he got to finance it.

In the long run, as expected, he couldn’t continue holding on his home. Maybe, that's why he buys a house in the small town. Perhaps only because, fulfilling all this, it was possible that no one would bother him again.

Maybe yes, maybe... no.

He came into his hands at some point in the first year he spent in that town.

One afternoon when he returned from his usual bought of groceries, he found a package in front of his door; A basket in which at first glance he only saw a pile of blankets stacked abruptly and a note tied at the edge of it.

It seemed, at first, something surreal.

He turned even more when he realized that the pile of badly folded blankets was really a little boy with dark hair and the note was a very bad scribble of a name barely understandable.

In his, understandable, instant panic was about to run away in search of some church or orphanage in which to leave the poor defenceless when, he stopped.

Halfway open the door, halfway to reach the knob, just, he stopped, watching the sweet and quiet expression that the little one had while he slept. He watched, how he huddled closer to his body in search of heat, as he found safety and calm enough to fall asleep into his arms. He observes, for no reason, how he seemed happy at his side.

Perhaps, things would be different if instants later he would not have taken so much time trying to decipher the name written on the paper.

_"Eiji Okumura"_

Maybe.

* * *

"Good morning" Ibe greet from the entrance of the basement, surprised to find Eiji at that time of the morning, not because he was awake, but because he was getting ready to leave. "Where do you plan to go?"

"Good morning" Although a little surprised, he manages to return the greeting with a little smile. "I’ll go to the library. I have to return some books" he replied softly as he finished fitting the aforementioned under his arm, there were not many, so he could go without needing to carry a basket. "Do you want that I bring something before go back?"

"No, don’t worry" Ibe only managed to rub his hands on his clothes trying uselessly to remove the dry oil that had sprinkled in them. He had to hold the spanner he had been looking for with dirty hands. "Just be careful"

"Do not worry, I know the way" he replied in the same tone as before. Approached to the door, he smiled one last time before leaving. "Be careful while you work in the basement."

He doesn’t wait for an answer and finally left home.

Eiji waited for a moment that the door makes a slight click behind him before making his way. He was used to waiting for the entrance to close completely, since, well, always, somehow it reassured him to know that nobody could break into his house while he was not there and Ibe worked, he had the tendency to lose the notion of space time and turning a deaf ear to most of his surroundings, it was a problem sometimes, and even nothing bad had ever happened, Eiji preferred to avoid it in anyway.

The place where they lived was not particularly dangerous or unsafe, you could say it was quiet, like the kind of place you would choose to spend a vacation.

With their houses perfectly aligned, their quaint shops and shops placed so that you could find one next to the other, with the forest where you could make your way if you walked enough ... and with their kind people.

Kind people, just that. Well, he had nothing against them, but sometimes it seemed that he could not be in his same tune no matter how hard he tried, it was as if most of the time they responded automatically, without really listening. When he was a child, he usually thought that it was because adults didn’t have time for their discoveries and banal conversation topics, but as he grew up, he realized that it was something else, because they never stop giving him a lot of monosyllables and deviations of the subject for answer even when he became an adult.

He never blames them, after all, their conversation topics might not be the kind of general liking and that seemed normal to him.

Only, sometimes he couldn’t avoid the feeling of loneliness.

Perhaps for that reason he starts liking the books. It was like having someone who, regardless of the moment, could talk about the topic you had in mind, with the ability to even bring you more knowledge about it, how the history and mechanics books that his father had on the mantelpiece. When he started going to the library and discovered fairy tales and epic battles, he was surprised by the power they had to transport any kind of thought and emotion from people to the most inhospitable corners of the world.

Having (though artificially) someone who shared his thoughts managed to make him feel accompanied most of the time. Plus, he has his father with whom he could share a lot about mechanics and engineering, but very little about fantastic adventures.

Sometimes the crazy idea of going in search of someone else crossed his mind. Someone to talk without fear; Someone who, even its for once time, understand. It might be great.

Sometimes sounds like a good idea. Just sometimes.

Without realizing it, he was already in front of the entrance to the bookstore, with the doorknob a few inches from his hand when someone came forward.

"Good morning" The one who reach the doorknob before him greeted with a weak gallantry, a blond guy with heavy facial features. He makes too a strange hand gesture before he could pass, that, if Eiji didn’t remember wrong, meant _the ladies first_.

Far from seeming an offensive work, he was glad that he had let him pass first, in one way or another when it came to _Arthur_ it was necessary to see things from the most positive way. Of course, if you didn’t want to fall into their provocations.

"Good morning" he returned the greeting with weakness as he passed by. He looks fleetingly at the librarian, if he was lucky, he would be crouched behind the counter and he could just give him the books quickly so he could get out of there soon. He would have liked to stay a few more moments and take a look at the new books, but with the other guy behind his heels it wasn’t the most prudent idea.

Because it was not for paranoia, he did not even bother to hide it, he did not go to the library because he was looking for a good book, he was there for him, because he knew it was the only place he could intercept him without doubt.

Next time he would have to try going to the last hour of the day.

For his bad and rude luck to call him, the manager noticed that he was in the back, struggling with what looked like a morning inventory, asked to be expected, he did not expect to take long.

To finish appealing to the rest of his bad omen Arthur approached him and without much consideration decided to snatch one of the books he had in his hands, opened it with feigned interest before starting to pass the pages rudely.

"It's a great book, don’t you think so?" he comments fleetingly, still holding the book, keeping it open on a random page.

"It’s entertaining, more after having read his previous works and realizing the change he wanted to convey in this, have you read it too?" He answered politely, without much encouragement. Waiting for the manager to arrive soon and finish with that meaningless conversation attempt.

“I didn’t know you liked fairy tales” As usual, he answered without paying attention to his question. He was holding a copy of _The Tempest_ by W.S

“I like happy endings”

There’s no answer.

He was not attacking with his true intentions and that was beginning to make him expectant. Yes, he expected that he gets some kind of conversation before everything, always was like that, a couple of questions before starting with his proposals. More than for merits of privacy and respect, it was because it was not very normal in that town for one man to be attracted to another. And that to Arthur was enough.

But get quiet? that’s new.

For miracle and salvation of that awkward conversation, the librarian finally appeared behind the counter. Eiji acted in a faster way than he expected, leaving the books without hesitation in front of the person in charge on the desk. Saying goodbye and babbling some vague excuse about why he had to leave quickly.

The way back seemed pleasantly shorter.

He was not surprised to need a time to catch his breath when he was able to cross the threshold of his door. There was an interesting run, plus he has to say _Hi!_ To all the people who already was in the streets. Very good morning exercise, don’t repeat.

He takes a last moment to hear it again, no matter that he was inside, the sound of the click of the bolt on the door. That was the last thing he needed to be able to relax completely, a simple and familiar sound that reminded him that everything was fine now.

Until the sound of something heavy falling to the floor rumbled in his ears, a blow that came from the basement.

Maybe, there were exceptions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I'm trying to do it better ;v;  
> I hope could improve soon.
> 
> Apologize me for my english.


	3. Who does he think he is?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try.

He managed to reach the basement door they had inside the house. The same one that was only two steps from the counter in the kitchen.

Living with an inventor gave you the need to get used to certain things, like finding tools in any corner of the house or continually having oil stains on your clothes, even listening to one or two strong punches, followed by a "I'm fine!”, Was what it had, stay constantly on the verge of disaster and the caution. Naturally, Eiji was used to that. But the explosions, no matter how small, and the smokescreens, no matter how diffuse they were, he wouldn’t allow him to get used to them.

He opened the door with more force than necessary, letting the smoke have more room for him to spread and, unwittingly, bringing something of it to his lungs. He had to cough a little before he could shout at his father to give a sign of life, which he didn’t take long to do.

"It's everything fine!, don’t worry!, it's not necessary for you to come, it's just ..." He interrupted himself to cough hard.

Well, he could tell that at least he was still breathing. Although that didn’t slow down Eiji's attempts to make his way inside the messy basement, he wouldn’t be at all calm until he could see him complete with his own eyes. A matter of having found it several times before being almost crushed by heavy objects.

He sighed in relief when he found him facing a machine in which, as if nothing had happened, he was still working. He had the half his body covered with what, presumably, was ash, except for a very marked circle around his eyes. Probably for having half protection. He didn’t change his expression of stress even as he became aware of the presence of Eiji, who strolled over to examine him, although he really did not seem to have been hurt at all.

"Did you hurt yourself?"

"I'm fine, you don’t have to worry" he replied quietly, brushing the ash off his arms.

"What was that-?"

"I had a problem with the operation of the gears nothing else, you can go." Short, being a little harder this time, he seemed unwilling to answer anymore.

"All right." He gave him the reason, in order to avoid any kind of confrontation. He could feel his frustration and didn’t want to push the feeling any further, he supposed that with the explosion he caused, he would have had enough.

He was behind his back disobeying his request, he didn’t want to leave either, he didn’t like to leave him alone when he started to get frustrated. He knew how hard it was to spend hours, even days, building something from scratch so that in the final moment it’s unable to function properly or can’t turn on, in addition to not knowing why in most cases. He broke his head thinking, many times he took himself to overstep his limits and end up in a deplorable state of health.

Another thing that he had become accustomed to was knowing when to act in response to his reactions. Now he could only hope that he would calm down on his own. Something he seemed to be doing, it didn’t look like he was going to break the tools when he held them.

"... I mean it this time." He assured to himself softly moments later, as if he was ending his thoughts. He dropped his arms heavily, stepped away from the invention, and moved forward in search of a place to sit. "I can’t do it."

Eiji followed him, standing in front of him, watching him expectantly.

"I can’t make it work." He agrees. Pushing a hand behind his neck, there was a black spot where his fingers passed. "I don’t know what is going wrong, I checked the whole system, from head to toe, there is nothing, everything is in place, I can’t find it, I can’t finish it for tomorrow, I can’t." He rubbed his face with both hands, resigned. "I can’t anymore."

"Of course you can." Eiji scolded, crouching so that he could see him in the eye. "You said the same thing when you were in the middle of the machine that you did to the tailor, with which you promised that it wouldn’t hurt her hands again. You couldn’t make the wire wheel connect with the internal mechanism that moved the needle, you said you couldn’t finish it, but you did it. " He recalled, in his search for encouragement, he didn’t know if he was doing or saying the right thing. "You managed to finish it, although you said you could not, you did not let it beat that time, you can’t let it beat you, you can finish the machine and you will win first place tomorrow at the fair, you will have the opportunity to become a famous inventor." But at least he tried.

He watched him for a few more seconds, feeling maybe he would add something else, a kind of culmination that would give him the last push to try again, but those words never came, only the determination and hope in the deep dark eyes of his son. It was then, that Ibe yielded to his laughter, a soft laugh. Sometimes, only sometimes. It seemed that Eiji was taking care of him.

But it was like that, both were striving to give their best in their father-son relationship even if they were not related. Ibe still did not understand all that fatherhood entails, he even wondered why, at the time, he had agreed to have a baby at home when he had no idea how to feed him. I tried, like Eiji. Both loved each other enough to do it.

"Do you really believe that?" He ask, still slightly smiling, he ran a hand through Eiji's hair to relax his worried expression.

"I've always believed it." Confessing bowing a little before laughter.

"What I did for so long without you." Ibe laughed again before getting to his feet. Eiji did follow him. "Well, I guess I can’t postpone it much longer."

With the spare spirits he set out to continue with what he had started, now going to the bottom of the machinery, where there used to be more problems with the operation.

"Did something new happen in the town?" he ask in favour to talking a little, it wasn’t something that he would like to do, generally, his work was constant and it was heavy for him to have to drive his attention every so often in order to have a decent exchange of words. But for a relatively short time he had realized how much Eiji enjoyed even the smallest talk, trivial though it was. He never understands why, but if that made him happy, he had no problem sacrificing a bit. He owed to him anyway. "Have you got a new book?"

"There's not much to tell, I just went to the library," he replied, walking a bit around the place. Now that he saw it well, he felt that the place was more crowded than usual, had it always so many types of keys? "Today I couldn’t get any book, nothing new has arrived."

He would be lying if he said that he didn’t want to tell him about his meeting with Arthur, he was his father and after all he was aware of the matter, but telling him just would worry him again. He could avoid telling it for that occasion. He took sit in a small edge that was attached to the wall.

"Well, but you still have some unfinished ones, isn’t? some of the ones I've brought you maybe."

"Yes, one of the last times you went out, _L'Astrée_ , the one that had stars on the cover and you bought because you thought it was a novel about the stars ... you know? in the end it was a story about a perfect ended romance." He mentioned lightly, dropping his head back a little, until it came up against the wall. That novel was very confusing to his liking, he was even blindly assuring that it was a romance. "I suppose, he narrates many things after all, it is not easy to know what his main point is, even _Astrea_ doesn’t seem to be the protagonist."

"I see ..." there were no more words after that, just the sound of the metal crashing and the odd nut falling. Eiji deduced that perhaps he had encountered the problem in the mechanism that had been causing him so much havoc, it surely required his full attention. He decided then to retire so that he could continue calmly.

"I'll go check the garden." Announcement to not worry him, he was not surprised not to receive an answer. "See you later."

He would have liked to continue with his thoughts about the book.

* * *

‘ _On the banks of the delightful rivers, there were continually a great number of shepherds, who, with the sorrow of their little fortune, due to the sweetness of the air, and the fertility of the earth, lived in the abundance of contained happiness._

_They would never have envied the golden joy of the first stage of happiness, even if love had not left them alone to enjoy the calm of the heavens so prodigious for them; but sleeping on the beds of ease, they submitted to the love of plane, which allegedly turned their authority into tyranny. Celadon was one of those who most resented him, the same one who was so enthralled with Astrea's perfections and that the hatred of his parents could not prevent him from getting lost in it._

_The truth is that, if ever someone could find happiness in the loss of oneself, it was he, in the loss of his own existence to obtain the favor of Lady Astrea; making sure of his full affection. After some ingratitude, she ends up receiving him and his attentions with reciprocal affection: so that if any change occurs in any of them later, it is likely that the heavens had something to do, to demonstrate, that nothing is more constant than inconsistency, which is constant in the alteration._

_For these two having lived together happily for the space of three years, even when at least they feared any disastrous accident, they found themselves betrayed at the mercy of the worst of the misfortunes of heartbreak, the loss of Semyres; just as Celadon did to disguise affection for her parents even after causing an invective hatred towards him, even after they tried to thwart her loving designs that seemed to be more hateful speeches towards the pastor that were moving away from the civil course. They ended up giving in to any procession: under this screen it was enough, if Semyres had not taken advantage of it, that was unlikely, he had turned his horse on the prowl to betray Astrea, who from the first moment only responded with tears and sighs.’_

" _With the arrival of fortune, one day, this loving pastor, found the moment to rise among them and express their true thoughts_ ..." Recite in a whisper, trying as hard as he could to not lose the thread of the situation that he had proposed to understand.

He was sitting on the edge of a fence, facing the little flower bushes he had in the garden in front of the house. He had just finished the slopes with the land, (he had cleaned the horses shed, collected the eggs from the chickens, fed the animals, delivered a generous portion of fertilizer to the crop and irrigated the flowers a little), and thought that was fair to just rest a few minutes before moving on to clean the house.

He had chosen to read a little because it seemed to him that now, having had time to clear his thoughts a little between duties, it would be easier for him to understand that copy. He wasn’t so wrong.

" _La Astrea by Honoré d'Urfé_." A voice from the outside pulled him out of his reverie with the book, the voice of someone standing in front of him, someone, who intuited, was treading a violet _Pyrenean columbine_. He didn’t want to check it yet. "Problems with reading?"

"Why do you ask?" It was going off on a tangent, yes, he knew it, but knowing who it is and what it probably intends, it was fair to want to appeal to any resource that would lengthen the conversation.

"It's been over a week that I see you with that book in your hand and the face you put on it doesn’t seem like you're enjoying it."

"It's dense, that’s all." he replied under his breath, realizing that he had made a mistake, he was crushing white, not violets. He struggled to keep the spirit from leaving his voice, there was still no reason to be defensive. "I like to understand what I'm reading, but understand this is more complicated.”

"I'm surprised you say that, come on, it's not wrong to accept that you need help every once in a while."

"I'll say that I'll go find the librarian later to ask if you feel comfortable listening it."

"Don’t be mean, I came precisely to offer you my help in this regard, you know, like when we were children."

He could hear a sour laugh, he was still reluctant to look up, the last thing he needed was to have to deal with the visual insistence, he would hardly have the strength to stay out of the verbal that was coming. It wasn’t the moment. Deciphering the book had taken more energy than he thought.

He was alarmed when he felt him climb onto the fence on which he rested, had taken a seat closer than necessary, so much so that he could see his book over his shoulder. Although not even look away from the copy, just tensed a little, wanted to leave, I knew where Arthur would throw now, I did not want to hear him try by that means.

"Maybe another time." He responded slowly, perhaps a little late, sliding slowly along the edge of the fence, moving away.

"Come on, it will be fun to go back to the old days."

It's past, as much as you want, you can’t go back to when things were good. You can’t expect it to fall with that. He walked away more.

"Because I do."

It disgusted him that he was still such a liar. He did not do it, he never did, he would not have done what he did.

"Don’t you miss the moments we spent together?"

"No." He abruptly stopped, standing up, avoiding crushing any other flower in the process. "I appreciate your offer but I think I don’t need it, I'm retiring for now, have a nice day."

He continued without looking at him, advancing without any intention of continuing with that meaningless conversation, striding long hoping to run into the entrance of his home. He expected to arrive before Arthur reached him, because of course, he don’t stop following him, he was more than clinging to everything, he was more than sorry for the decisions he had made and tried to make up for lost time.

That's how he wanted to sound and it sounded so believable. Because he appealed to good memories that anyone would miss, but he didn’t. He only used it because he knew it was something that could be used to create a friendship from nothing, to be able to make a path based on nostalgia and get where he wanted.

It was just a lie.

He knew that he was shouting even more insistence, he could hear it, a lot of screams of regret that only made him feel worse. Because he knew that even a part of him, deep down, was still clinging to the past. Because he could not help it, he was the kind of person who treasures happy moments, for something Arthur kept appealing to that. He should be used to it. But the pain overwhelmed him a lot this time.

He remembered with love that time in which he could taste what it was like to have someone to share, to be able to talk and to be listened to for more than two minutes in a row, to have someone to call a friend. That time in which he discovered all those banal things that made him happy.

When there were not simple desires to the air.

It bothered him that someone like him came to use them as if they were nothing.

He didn’t know when he managed to be on the other side of the door, under the safety of the bolt, nor when he managed to reach his room and fall on the bed. He didn’t know how he had managed to forget how much it hurt to remember.

How much it hurt to let hope stay inside you.

* * *

The next day arrived, faster than he expected. And as he had predicted, Ibe managed to repair his machine in time to present it at the fair. He told him that afternoon. Screaming, overly excited because he had achieved it. He was happy to have achieved it.

He couldn’t ruin it by telling him about Arthur.

Philip was happy to get out of the barn and finally have the opportunity to stretch his legs a little beyond his barn, he was a fan of long runs. It was easy to handle, at the same time docile, reasons enough to be one of the horses that used most when they needed to go far.

Eiji was finishing adjusting the harness when Ibe left the house, with the last boxes he would carry in the cart. This year he was carrying more weight than usual, they expected Philip not have a lot of problems with that. It wouldn’t be easy to solve in the middle of the forest.

"Good boy." Congratulate Eiji when he had finished putting the bridle, also giving him a couple of caresses, an extra reward for staying still while he fixed him, he would have liked to give him an apple too. "Take care of dad for my Philip, okay?"

Philip whinnied with determination.

"All ready?" Shunichi asked behind his back. He was tempted to say no.

"All ready." He answered in his place, smiling manfully. He went to give him a hand to ride on the horse.

He was just to tell him what happened, he wanted to tell him and that he helped him with all that, with all those things that couldn’t be right, because it couldn’t be right for someone to appeal to your most sensitive points because he could not think of another way to getting closer. He wanted to ask him to hug him and tell him that everything would be fine. He felt guilty for hiding things from his.

But he didn’t want to let something so childish ruin the possibilities that were being presented to him.

There were things that mattered more.

"And? Do you want me to bring you something?" As soon as he was ready to leave, Eiji had stayed at his side, checking the reins for the last time. He wasn’t surprised by the question.

"I want you to come back safe and sound" he responded at the step, making some time to think about anything, Ibe was determined to always bring him something, he would not get rid of it. He hears a laugh.

"Anything else?"

"A rose." He decided, feeling a slight twinge in his stomach. Nothing, probably.

"Why?"

"I didn’t manage to make them bloom this year either." He explained, giving the garden a quick look. "It would be nice to see one after so long."

"Just one rose?"

"Just one rose."

A flower that would not give problems when returning, sounded good.

"See you soon." Eiji said first, not wanting to delay him further, moving a little away so they could make their way.

Maybe, if he left before, he would return sooner. Maybe

"See you soon. Come on, Philip." Ibe spoke, smiling for the last time before moving off down the sidewalk.

For the last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for read.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, thanks for read!  
> I'm doing my best ;u;


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